The ex-spymaster August Hanning once criticised Germany’s own intelligence services as “vegetarians” among prowling carnivores, demanding broader powers to keep the country safe in a treacherous world.
Often described as a “godfather” of Germany’s 21st-century security architecture, Hanning is now charged with treasonous espionage and handing state secrets to a foreign power in one of the most spectacular alleged intelligence breaches of the postwar period.